New Quincy park opens, splash pad to come

QUINCY — The playground, basketball court and cement bowl are all open at the new park on Sixth Avenue Northeast in Quincy, with a splash pad due to open before the end of June. 

“That park has been talked about for a lot of years, so it’s really cool to see it (open),” said Quincy City Council member Andrew Royer during the June 2 regular meeting. 

Quincy Recreation Director Russ Harrington said the splash pad must be inspected by the Washington Department of Health before it can be used, and that’s scheduled for the week of June 15. City employees also need some training on its use before it can open, he said, and that’s scheduled for the week of the inspection. 

“Hopefully, by the (following) weekend, we should be able to turn the water on, and we’ll have the whole park ready to go,” he said. “Then you’re going to see the numbers skyrocket after that.”

Public Works Director Carl Worley said in a separate interview that the park cost about $2.34 million. The land was provided by the developers of the adjoining apartment complex. 

Worley said it’s already drawing crowds.

“Every time I go by there, it’s packed. And the water’s not even turned on,” Worley said.

The park was developed from a vacant lot about half a block from the Quincy Animal Shelter, near residential neighborhoods of apartments and single-family homes. While the Quincy Aquatic Center is about a mile and half away, families and children walking to the pool would have to cross railroad tracks and F Street Northeast, one of the main routes through town, to get there. As a result, city officials designed the park with a splash pad as an alternative place to cool off on a hot day.

The park has swings – and a tire swing – a climbing frame, a playground toy for small children, a basketball half-court and a concrete bowl called a skate dot for skateboards and scooters.

Worley said the design was planned to make the most use of a relatively small space.

“Skate dot versus a skate park, single-hoop basketball versus a full court, multiple playground structures,” Worley wrote in response to an email from the Columbia Basin Herald. 

Michael Terrel Landscape Architects did the design, Worley said.

“They did a good job for us,” he said.

The pool will be open this summer; construction of the new Quincy Aquatic Center is almost complete, Harrington said.   

“Probably half of the pool is filled up,” he said Tuesday. “Their goal is to have the whole pool filled (Tuesday) so they can start recirculating and turn on some boilers and start doing the rest of the checking (Wednesday).” 

Some exterior work is still underway, he said, but the goal is to have the first training classes for lifeguards this weekend. 

“There’s a lot happening. Things are going to start looking a lot different,” Harrington said. “There’s going to be a lot of things coming together in the next four weeks.”

    Slides, swings, and tunnels are among toys for smaller children in the new Quincy park.